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Description:Why do so many think the Bible teaches that the universe is six thousand years old? There are many good biblical and historical reasons to read Genesis 1 nonliterally, and there are many good scientific reasons to think the universe is much older. Out of this misconception, some will lose faith, while others won''t find it. This book was written for a large audience, gathering in a little more than one hundred pages the main biblical, historical, and astrophysical reasons to recognize that the universe is far more than six thousand years old. Contrary to some common views, scientists do not simply assume physical laws have been the same in the past. They observe it.

Description:Written over five decades, these poems begin fixed in the human condition, our common experience of an imperfect world. Slowly, under the aegis of the Spirit, they move toward a brighter vision of things: they ask us to ""dream in that fecund darkness until all shapes are shining."" Poetry offers us an experience of union with the alarming and enthralling world we live in, as well as glimpses of what transcends it and is beyond language. It reminds us that all is connected and supports the hope that light will triumph. The author trusts that these poems may do the same as they explore the chain of being from animal to human, from serpent to angel--and that joy is the final dominant note.Endorsements:""Robert Siegel is one of my favorite poets, and I''m frustrated that so many readers are unfamiliar with him. This handsome ''new and selected'' volume is an ideal introduction to his work, and I may just resort to hawking it on street corners, like those ragamuffin kids peddling papers in old movies. You want the latest news? Read Within This Tree of Bones.""--John WilsonEditor, Books & Culture""Robert Siegel possesses the transformational power of a wizard. Whether he casts his eye on a pig or a night crawler, whether he is standing in falling rain or in a swath of sunlight, he can make the world seem more like itself. For forty years now his poetry has been clarifying the world for me. Bob''s new sonnets bring biblical subjects and landscapes into such intimate and vivid language that I will never again think of them in the same way. The things he writes about--as he says in ''The Annunciation''--grow ''more distinct, themselves / in a way beyond explaining.'' That seems to me to be a brilliant definition of what great poetry can do. It clarifies the world beyond any other kind of explanation. This book does that. It is filled with great poetry.""--Jeanne Murray WalkerProfessor of EnglishHead of Creative Writing, University of Delaware""Robert Siegel''s business is tracking whatever order, not chaos, obtains. He knows certainly ''the helpless dance out their fear'' as much as ''the divine tread fall[s] again and again.'' A cornucopia of wise songs, monologues, psalms, prayers, fables, sonnets, and more, Within This Tree of Bones is what I think a career book should be: ambitious, sonorous, eclectic, serious, joyful.""--David J Smith,Professor of Poetry,Johns Hopkins UniversityAbout the Contributor(s):ROBERT SIEGEL (1939-2012) is the author of ten books of poetry and fiction. His poetry includes A Pentecost of Finches, The Waters Under the Earth, In a Pig''s Eye, and The Beasts & the Elders. His poetry has won prizes and fellowships from Poetry, Prairie Schooner, America, the Friends of Literature, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His fiction includes the award-winning Whalesong trilogy. He has taught at Dartmouth, Princeton, Wheaton, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he was professor emeritus of English.

Description:One of our best known biblical interpreters offers essays and sermons meant to assist preachers in their interpretation and explication of biblical texts. Often neglected in preaching, the Old Testament is a particular focus of attention, but only in the context of the wholeness of Scripture.Questions addressed in this volume include the following: How does one approach and preach the Old Testament at Easter? What are the contemporary issues or dimensions in preaching the Ten Commandments? And how does the preacher hold the Old Testament and the New Testament in proclaiming God''s word to the church?In this collection, attention is given to preaching about the ministry and on particular occasions, such as funerals, baccalaureates, ordination, and in Advent and Christmas as well as before Holy Communion.Endorsements:""I have long admired the way in which Patrick Miller combines insightful biblical scholarship with love for the church and its ministry. The two are beautifully wed in this book where Miller vividly reminds us of all we have to gain by reincorporating regular preaching from the Old Testament into our ministries, and in which he models how to do so with integrity, authenticity, and (always) theological depth.""--Nora Tubbs Tisdale, Professor of Homiletics, Yale Divinity School""Patrick Miller''s passion for the Bible and church is on full exhibit here, together with his unrivaled erudition and his great theological sensibility. In this book he faces the hard and complex issues of biblical interpretation and preaching. Readers will be impacted and transformed by the force of his argument and advocacy. There is good reason he is reckoned to be the premier interpreter of our generation. His own sermons included here attest to the wise practicality of what he teaches.""--Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary""Patrick Miller began his career as a preacher and during his academic years he has been regularly in the pulpit. . . . In his practice as a teacher he never lost sight of the purpose of the interpretive discipline--discerning the Word. Now he has given us this rich harvest composed of instruction about and illustrations of the way through the text to the sermon. It will benefit and inspire everyone--students, teachers, and preachers alike.""--James Luther Mays, Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and the Old Testament, Union Presbyterian SeminaryAbout the Contributor(s):Patrick D. Miller is Professor of Old Testament Theology Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is former editor of Theology Today and author of The Ten Commandments (2009) and many other works.

Description:In this book, which continues a renowned series of essays published in the Christian Century, thirteen prominent Christian theologians speak--in unusually personal voices--of their journeys of faith and of the questions that have shaped their writing and scholarship.Reflecting a variety of theological positions and approaches, these essays feature decisive encounters with prayer, scriptural tradition, struggles for justice, and religious and cultural diversity.Some of these ""changes of mind"" include a change in denominational allegiance, others reflect a shift in method or emphasis prompted by experiences inside or outside the church. Some of the essays display a long-term theological project that unfolds or deepens in changing circumstances. All display the renewed vitality of theology in the postmodern context.Contributors include Paul Griffiths, Sarah Coakley, Mark Noll, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Carol Zaleski, Kathryn Tanner, Scott Cairns, Robert Jenson, Emilie Townes, Peter Ochs, David Ford, Douglas John Hall, and Max Stackhouse.Endorsements:""The Christian Century''s How My Mind Has Changed series has always offered an invaluable picture of how theologians negotiated the crisis of belief in their time. This illuminating volume, the most theologically diverse in the series, is a compelling and worthy successor to the five that preceded it.""--Gary Dorrien, Union Theological Seminary""The Christian Century''s wonderful and illuminating series, How My Mind Has Changed, has yielded tremendous insights from theologians over the years. Too often we only get snapshots of a theologian''s reflections; here we glimpse the development of their thought. This collection gathers together many of the contemporary world''s most insightful and engaging thinkers, and the result is a delightful, intellectual feast.""--L. Gregory Jones, Duke Divinity School""These are luminous essays. Their authors do not merely represent topics or positions on the theological spectrum. They are honest and sometimes conflicted human beings, willing to drop the mask of world-class expertise and reveal the hope, agony, and changing contours of their faith. The honesty of these autobiographical accounts will create a sense of kinship between writers and readers. They will light the reader''s path through his or her own struggles with continuity and change.""--Richard Lischer, Duke Divinity SchoolAbout the Contributor(s):David Heim has since 1998 been executive editor of the Christian Century, a biweekly magazine of religion, politics, and culture. He has written hundreds of signed and unsigned articles for the magazine, as well as reviews for the Washington Post and other journals.

Description:For thirty years, Stratford Caldecott has been an inspirational figure in liturgy, fantasy literature, graphic novels, spirituality, education, ecology and social theory. Hundreds of people have learned from his spiritual approaches to the great existential questions. The Beauty of God''s House is a Festschrift dedicated to him. The book seeks to cover the whole range of Caldecott''s interests, from poetics to politics. Anyone interested in the field of theology and the arts will find much to intrigue them in this delightful multi-authored volume. The common core of Stratford''s interests is in the beauty of the cosmos and how it reflects the beauty of God. This book is about the beauty of God''s ""realm,"" and it conceives God''s realm as the arts, politics, liturgy, religions, and human life. It touches on the many places where beauty and spirituality overlap. It is an engagement in theological aesthetics that goes well beyond the ""aesthetic.""

Description:The growing housing crisis cries out for solutions that work. As many as 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness each year, half of them women and children. One in four renters spends more than half of their income on rent and utilities (more than 30 percent is considered unaffordable). With record foreclosures and 28 percent of homes ""underwater,"" middle and low-income homeowners are suffering. Many congregations want to address this daunting problem yet feel powerless and uncertain about what to do. The good news is that churches are effectively addressing the housing crisis from Washington State to New York City--where an alliance of sixty churches has built five thousand homes for low-income homeowners, with virtually no government funding or foreclosures. This book not only presents solid theological thinking about housing, but also offers workable solutions to the current crisis: true stories by those who have made housing happen. Each story features a different Christian denomination, geographic area, and model: adaptive reuse, cohousing, cooperative housing, mixed-income, mixed-use, inclusionary zoning, second units, community land trusts, sweat equity, and more. Making Housing Happen is about vision and faith, relationships, and persistence. Its remarkable stories will inspire and challenge you to action. This new edition includes significant new material, especially in light of the ongoing mortgage crisis.Endorsements:""Shook and her colleagues powerfully blend inspiration and practical reality, weaving together the need for affordable housing, the teachings of the prophetic tradition, and the tangible accomplishments of churches and other faith-based organizations around the country . . . This book should be read by any person of faith ready to put that faith into practice."" --Alan Mallach, Senior Fellow of the National Housing Institute and Brookings Institution ""Making Housing Happen brings hope and delivers it to the non-expert in a clear, digestible, and comprehensive way. Drawing on the experience of housing providers all over the country, Shook blends inspiration and practicality in just the right proportions."" --Tim Iglesias, University of San Francisco School of Law ""Making Housing Happen captures the diversity of faithful approaches to addressing the wide range of housing needs in our nation. Jill''s brings these stories together with a policy lens and a theological narrative that is unparalleled. Before reading the book, I struggled with how to address the deep wounds of the housing crisis in a faithful way. After reading the book, I was moved and inspired to work with communities of faith to find solutions to homelessness. Making Housing Happen is an incredible resource and reference tool for me as I mobilize congregations to create and advocate for housing with dignity in my community. It''s stories and examples are full of inspiration, hard-earned wisdom and hope."" --Allison Johnson, Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation""Making Housing Happen gives students inspiring examples of how they can participate in making a difference in the lives of people throughout the community. It is real, practical, and personal. Making Housing Happen brings the dry statistics of America''s affordable housing crisis to life with moving stories of struggle and triumph.""--Dr. Russell James III, University of Georgia ""Shook has collected wise and astute commentary from the experts in the field of housing. Together they offer [the] theological and biblical insights we need to motivate us to address a crisis in America. Church people need to do something about this crisis, and this book will aid them immensely if they are willing to take up the challenge.""--Tony Campolo, Eastern UniversityAbout the Contributor(s):Jill Suzanne Shook works with churches to bring about housing justice in the United States. She has earned graduate degrees from Denver Seminary and B

Description:Nobody loves a father like his daughter. That truth comes through powerfully in this memoir. Sarah was enchanted by her father; she loved him with all her young heart. But when she turned five, her father began to do strange things. His bizarre behavior ultimately cost him his job at a major pharmacy in Detroit. The time was the 1930s, with no medication for manic depressive disorder. Sarah joins forces with her mother and younger brother to contain the psychosis that with repeated hospitalizations relentlessly tightens its hold on her father. When she is seven, she watches her father''s third episode of mania mount and vows never to let this happen to her--she would be strong with a faith like her valiant mother''s. Nevertheless, when Sarah entered her second year at Wayne State University, she was gripped by severe depression and anorexia that almost took her life. Had she inherited her father''s illness? Or had challenges to her Christian faith during her first year of university caused this depression? No one knew. The help of a department store, an astute psychiatrist, and an Anglican priest illustrate the interplay between financial, psychological, and spiritual resources in unraveling the mystery of Sarah''s depression.Endorsements:""Sarah Slagle Arnold''s memoir manages the great feat of being harrowing and genuinely uplifting at the same time. It is adroitly observed and shot through with great feeling for an era, for the struggles of those around her, and for her own struggles. The fact of her faith is exactly that--a fact that remains in her life and shows the depth and importance of spiritual commitment. This is a brave and loving book."" --Baron Wormser, Fairfield University MFA Program""Faith and Madness takes us on a journey into the soul, allowing us to share in an experience of inner healing at the depths where spirituality and psychology converge. Thank you Sarah Slagle Arnold for this courageous book!"" --Dale T. Irvin, New York Theological Seminary""It would be hard to find a memoir that is more honest, that inquires into the life of a family and the growth--and testing--of a religious faith with greater intensity than Sarah Slagle Arnold''s Faith and Madness. It insists that clarity and charity are not mutually exclusive, and that sometimes faith and hope are hard to tell apart. Brava!""--Richard Hoffman, Emerson CollegeAbout the Contributor(s):Sarah Slagle Arnold (PhD, University of Michigan) is a psychologist/psychoanalyst and writer living in Maine. For thirty years she was in private practice in New York City and on the faculty of the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health. She is a graduate of New York Theological Seminary.

About the Contributor(s):Eleazar S. Fernandez is Professor of Constructive Theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, Minnesota. Some of his published works include Burning Center, Porous Borders: The Church in a Globalized World; New Overtures: Asian North American Theology; Reimagining the Human; Realizing the America of Our Hearts; A Dream Unfinished; and Toward a Theology of Struggle. In June 2013 he assumed his new post as President of Union Theological Seminary, Philippines.

Description:What is God doing about a world marked by conflict and division? What about a world in which our technologies promise great good but also threaten our existence? What is God doing in a world where the demands for accumulation and acquisition create division and despair? Can Christians hope to be of positive influence in a world that does not always support, reflect, or even understand Christian commitments?Christian ethics often raises such questions as these, and the possible answers vary widely. Paul''s Letter to the Ephesians is a tremendous resource for exploring a faithful response to perhaps the toughest question of all: what is God doing about evil? The role of Christian ethics is to take seriously the challenge that, whatever God is doing, God calls us to participate in a distinctive task that embraces our own commitments and labors within the divine purpose. Ephesians says that God has taken the initiative to pursue that purpose and, remarkably, offers that we ourselves are part of the answer to the question, what is God doing about evil?Endorsements:""Hope for the future cannot be extrapolated from data of the present. That would only yield despair. If there is to be hope, it must derive from a different sort of logic. In The Poetics of Grace, Jeph Holloway has undertaken to spell out this different logic. By insisting that the primary question of ethics is not ''what must I do?'' but ''what has been given to us?'' Holloway, motivated by deep pastoral concern, frames a Trinitarian ethics attuned both to history and Christian Scripture.""--Brad J. Kallenberg, Professor of Theology and Ethics, University of Dayton""God, in Holloway''s groundbreaking The Poetics of Grace, summons us to engage in the divine, transformative work that settles on nothing less than daring, responsible, and participatory biblical ethics in line with God''s creative, peacemaking, and reconciling work of sustaining life. This unique reading of Ephesians is a probing and stimulating, delicate and unfailing gift to the academy and the church.""--Aliou Cissé Niang, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Union Theological SeminaryAbout the Contributor(s):Jeph Holloway is Professor of Theology and Ethics in the School of Christian Studies and Graduate Program at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas. He is the author of Peripateō as a Thematic Marker for Pauline Ethics (1992).

Description:Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship is a series of four liturgical resources: three consisting of liturgical elements for Years A, B, and C of the Revised Common Lectionary, and a fourth, the first such resource to support the implementation of Year D: A Quadrennial Supplement to the Revised Common Lectionary (Cascade Books). Each volume consists of a Call to Worship, Opening Prayer, Call to Confession, Prayer of Confession, and Declaration of Forgiveness, with Years A-C including additional elements (A Prayer in Preparation for Worship, The Offering, Prayer of Dedication, and a Blessing) suitable for Presbyterian, Reformed, and other Protestant worship. Each of these practical volumes is intended for use by pastors, liturgists, and other planners and leaders of worship.Endorsements:""Timothy Slemmons has done us all a great favor with these winsome and moving resources for every Sunday of Year B. Every prayer and response grows from his own close and reverent meditation on the varied texts of the lectionary. Whether used as is or adapted to local contexts, they will push us all to a richer life of public worship.""--Gary Neal Hansen, Associate Professor of Church History, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary""How wonderful that God''s people should have words by which to hear and respond to the living Word. Fresh, varied, rich in imagery, the liturgy offered here is also deeply familiar as it articulates truth in the relationship between God and his people. Timothy Slemmons has loosened our tongues with honest, biblical, joyful language with which to worship the Lord. Our worshiping community will be eager to find their voice in this liturgy.""--Beth McCaw, Pastor to Students, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary""Pastors looking to shape all the elements of worship into one, integrated whole need to look no further than Slemmons''s creative and utterly faithful volume. Written with beauty, yet also with an informality suitable as a guide for contemporary worship, this is a great resource for anyone approaching the relentless task and terrific privilege of planning weekly worship.""--Charles B. Hardwick, Director of Theology, Worship, and Education, Presbyterian Church (USA)About the Contributor(s):Timothy Matthew Slemmons is Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Worship at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. He is author of Groans of the Spirit: Homiletical Dialectics in an Age of Confusion (2010).

Growing out of the work that the author did in preparing two major commentaries on Isaiah, these essays range from comprehensive to specific, and from popular to scholarly. They first appeared in biblical dictionaries, scholarly journals, and popular periodicals. Gathered here for the first time, they display in various ways how the author sees the various parts of Isaiah functioning together to give a coherent message to the church. The opening chapters lay out Oswalt''s understanding of the overall message of the book of Isaiah. Subsequent chapters consider such themes as holiness and righteousness as they function in that larger structure. The concluding chapters look at selected sections of Isaiah in more detail, noting how those specific messages contribute to the overall whole."The book of Isaiah is a long and winding road with many twists, turns, and about-faces. What does it all mean? John Oswalt is uniquely qualified to tell us. The Holy One of Israel compiles his reflections from a lifetime of research, and as such, helps readers understand Isaiah''s beauty, majesty, and profound theology."--Reed Lessing, Professor of Exegetical Theology, Concordia Seminary, Missouri"This work contains an amazing collection of essays by an eminent scholar who has spent over thirty years of his life devoted to the book of Isaiah. It summarizes several decades of studies on the book of Isaiah, collects articles on a wide range of topics, and puts them into a handy reference tool. This work should become a standard resource for those doing serious research in the book of Isaiah."--Paul D. Wegner, Professor of Old Testament, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, California"Finally in one place, the learned reflections of a sage who consistently focused his exegetical gaze over the past four decades on one of the masterpieces of biblical literature. This collection opens up the riches of the book of Isaiah, providing historical, literary, and theological insights that cannot help but prompt further research and proclamation."--Mark J. Boda, Professor of Old Testament, McMaster Divinity College, Canada"For several decades, the work of Oswalt on Isaiah has commanded the respect of evangelical and mainstream scholars alike. This volume augments Oswalt''s classic commentary with collected essays that offer mature reflection on some of the most crucial themes confronting any student of Isaiah. The reader will discover the careful balance of critical thought and spiritual sensitivity so characteristic of Oswalt''s work. I''m grateful to Wipf and Stock for making these essays so readily accessible."--John W. Hilber, Professor of Old Testament, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, MichiganJohn N. Oswalt is Visiting Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is the author of nine books, including The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39 (1986) and The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66 (1998) in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament, and The Bible among the Myths (2009).